What a sand dam would mean to us

Excellent Development

The Matumo Tree Growers self-help group was founded in 2012, with the incentive of finding solutions to many issues the community faced due to a lack of access to clean water. We discussed the current situation and future aspirations if they were offered enough funding to build sand dams.

One major priority for the community is the prevention of waterborne diseases, often contracted by drinking contaminated water from the nearest river. Anna Mangeli, 58, has two children who contracted typhoid, and they had no choice but to continue drinking the same water afterwards. She explains “most of the time we lack money for buying water treatment chemicals. So just take it the way it is and believe that God will make us safe.” Jackson Kimila Kyaka, 65, remembers suffering from belharzia; “I was passing urine that was laced with blood... When I was sick I could not work, I was very weak,” he says. They believe a sand dam would bring an end to these devastating circumstances.

“Most of the time we lack money for buying water treatment chemicals. So just take it the way it is and believe that God will make us safe."

Anna Mangeli, Matumo Tree Growers self-help group member.

Currently, reaching the nearest water source is a dangerous, timely journey, taking one and a half hours each way. Livestock have created gullies and holes in the already steep, hilly paths, causing many people to fall. The temperamental nature of donkeys, that are meant to ease the journey, create further risks when they get restless; “Gerry cans fall off and they get destroyed and there is also the danger of harming whoever is with the donkey,” says Anna. Livestock then continue to cause problems at the river, filling scoop holes with sand so more time is wasted scooping them out again to reach water. If they had the funding, the group would like to install a shallow well to significantly reduce the time spent collecting water and eradicate these grievances.

“I was passing urine that was laced with blood... When I was sick I could not work, I was very weak.”

Jackson Kimila Kyaka, Matumo Tree Growers self-help group member.

Another issue currently is that fetchers carry water home on their backs, meaning they take only what they can manage. This is never enough. Insufficient water affects Anna as she cannot run her kitchen garden or grow fruit trees. “I checked yesterday and the seedlings are already drying,” she says.

They trust this would change if they have nearby access safe water and would enjoy a much higher standard of living, having enough to eat and increased income from selling crops. Anna says “we hope to increase what we are planting by having kale, spinach, tomatoes.” Others hope to grow green maize, okra and sweet pepper. Chairman Alexander Mutuka Kituusye, 65, adds “our agricultural production will change for the better because irrigation will now be possible.”

Other aspirations include less reliance on relief aid, and Chairman added, “Our village will generally develop because once there is the flow of money, everybody will be happy, because ‘water is life.”

“Our village will generally develop because once there is the flow of money, everybody will be happy, because water is life.”

Please consider donating today, to help us meet our urgent need. Your donation will ensure that fewer women and children have to face the terrible health consequences of collecting and using unprotected water, and more families can begin to thrive.

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£60could provide a community with a roll of barbed wire to reinforce their sand dam and keep it anchored to the bedrock

£30could supply a community with a rake, gardening fork, shovel and watering cans to plant fruit trees for fuel and fodder

£15could provide a dryland farmer with drought-tolerant seeds to grow a reliable source of fresh food for their children

Supporting people in drylands to build sand dams, which provide a local supply of water, means that less children die each year from curable diarrhoea and women no longer have to bare this burden. Can you help by making a donation that will stop the suffering of communities living in drylands?

Related

Becky Little and Jason Maddrell helped to build a sand dam on an Excellent expedition in 2012. They returned to lead the Excellent 2016 expedition and visited the same community four years’ on, and were astonished to see how much the area has changed.

The results of a new sand dam are astonishing to see - a green oasis in the midst of a barren and parched landscape. This community has been using the water from the dam for growing vegetables and keeping their livestock healthy.

For rural women in the world’s drylands, life is defined by the burden of collecting water. For the old and the young, the sick and the healthy, it is a chore with no relief. Even when pregnant, women must trek over long distances in order to provide their families with water.

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Read about our plan to directly support other organisations to build sand dams, in turn, realising our vision to support millions of the world’s poorest people by helping them to transform their own lives through water and soil conservation in drylands.